Time flies, holiday is over and its time to welcome the Kitchen God to return from his trip to the Jade Emperor.

The Kitchen God will return today with his god friends, showing them the family who did good and those who did evil deeds. His friends will take notes and cast spells on the families before they return back to the Jade Emperor. What is best to welcome the guest who traveled all the way from heaven to your home but feast!

For the annual task of protection and reporting, the wood block print for the Kitchen God are dated with a calendar of that year. This particular print was for the year 1987.

Today the 24th day of lunar December is the day to thank your Kitchen God.

It is believed that the Kitchen God has spend a year blessing our food and our cooking (which one must be thankful for!), apart from this he has been monitoring our virtue and evil deeds and will depart in the morning to report to the Jade Emperor. To thank him for his hard work and to avoid any slip up with his report, special food has to be offered for this occasion.

A bowl of water and a bowl of rice – to signify that the Kitchen God to be pure and impartial.

Sugarcane – the node of the sugar cane forms the ladder for the Kitchen God to reach the sky.

Rice cake – to make his mouth sticky so no bad things would leak out

Satsumas, tangerines and red Sugar – to sweeten his mouth

Paper Horse, black robe and boots – costume and transport for his journey to the Jade Emperor

It is believed that at the beginning of every Chinese New Year, on lunar January 4th, the Jade Emperor will sent the Kitchen God to monitor the activities of each household (a bit like the NSA, I guess) and at the end of the year, lunar December 24th, the Kitchen God will depart to make his annual report back to the Jade Emperor. To thank his for a year’s hard work, before his departure a special meal will be prepared for him.

If you still havent prepare the farewell dinner, hurry up before he leaves!

On this day, the Kitchen God is about to depart to do his yearly report to the Jade Emperor; a summary of the good and bad deeds of the family his has been with. This is the day the family should thank him for his presence and to sweeten him up a bit so he will speak well of them.

The offering should include:
A Bowl of Rice + A Bowl of Water
– to show the relationship between the Kitchen God and the family is clean and innocent, if the Kitchen God is lenient, the 2 items would turn black when he return to heaven.
Sugar Canes with Nodes and End Leaves
– with the nodes the Kitchen God can use it as a ladder to climb up to heaven, the end leaves symbolizes a beginning and an ending.
Fried Rice Biscuits, Satsumas, Tangerines, Red Sugar and A Red Packet
– food to sweeten his mouth so good words would be used for his report.
A Paper Horse, Black Robe, Boots
– provision of transport and costume for his meeting with the Jade Emperor.
A Kitchen God Cheat Sheet
– a yellow piece of paper with words chosen by the family.

These offerings should be place in the rice storage container.
With so much bribe, I wonder if the rice and water should be there at all …

Previously we talked about preparing the Kitchen God for his report to the Jade Emperor, traditionally today (4th day of Chinese New Year) is the day to welcome him back to the household. (see Kitchen God Wood Block Print-12/04/2011) The feast would be the same as that is served for welcoming a guest that has travelled from afar. Everyone in the household has to be present so he can keep his censors for the new year correctly.

This wood block print was from the 26th year of the Republic of China, i.e. 1938. Every year a there will be a new calendar for the Kitchen God. The two gods in the middle are the Kitchen God and his wife, on the upper row is the god of fertility, the 4 gods on either sides are 3 categories of saints (upper, middle and ground), the lower 4 are the junior money gods and the money bringing kid and the pair of door gods. For this particular kitchen god, his schedule is tighter then the one traditionally practice, he departs for the Jade Emperor on the 23rd eve and returns on the 5th hour of the New Years day.

This is a wood block print of the Kitchen God (Zao Jun) which traditional would be placed in the kitchen. He has been worshiped by the Chinese since about 1050BC! The Kitchen God is believed to control the fortune of the household; at the end of the year (form 23 to 30 December of the lunar calender) he will report to the Jade Emperor all the kindness and evil deeds the family has done over that year. The two assistant gods by his side, one hold a can with the record of the kind deeds and the other the evil record can. Before the Kitchen God depart for his yearly duty, the families (usually on the 23rd) would make offering to thank him. The offering are all sweet and gluey food, hoping it would stick to his mouth and sweet things would be said in his report. Others would add a pair of couplet note to remind him, wine to to make him drunk etc. hmmm … (also see The Return of the Kitchen God-01/26/2012)